Page 51 - fourth year book

HEALTH SYSTEM IN EGYPT

CURRENT SITUATION OF EGYPTIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM:
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES.

Analyzing the current situation of the Egyptian health care system
revealed that it has several opportunities and challenges.

Strengths of the system:
 Access to health care was a basic right for all Egyptians

The “Right to Health” as captured in Egypt’s Constitution of January 2014

 Egypt has an extensive network of health facilities ensuring easy
access to basic health services for its population Services, 95% of
the population had physical access to care - within 5 Kilometers

of a facility.

 An extensive infrastructure of physicians clinics and hospitals
 Egypt also has been able to provide the vast majority of the

population with access to safe water and sanitation.

 Statistics from UNICEF on Egypt reveal that 91% of children aged
18-29 months were fully immunized in 2014.

Reasons for unsuccessful implementation of primary Health care

 Lack of community participation as a result of conviction that
the state is responsible for providing the totality of health
services.

 Lack of inter-sectoral collaboration.
 Misuse of human resources and material resources leading to
imbalances between the number of health professionals in

different disciplines and categories and to inequitable
geographical distribution. As well as unsatisfactory working
conditions of health workers with low salaries and inadequate
career structures.

 Weaknesses of national health systems with weak managerial
capabilities at all levels of care have hindered the effective and
efficient implementation of health programs and causing poor

organization and delivery of health services at all levels
including ineffective referral systems.

 The weakness of health information systems at central and
peripheral levels has resulted in difficulties in collecting and
using information to measure performance of health facilities.

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